I am – Hercules!!
Screenwriter Justin Theroux (the fast-approaching Ben Stiller comedy "Tropic Thunder") is negotiating to write “Iron Man 2,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The widely acclaimed "Tropic," which co-stars "Iron Man" star Robert Downey Jr., was the first produced screenplay for Theroux, who previously made his mark as an actor in projects like "Mulholland Dr" and "Six Feet Under."
The same piece indicates "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau is negotiating to helm the Marvel sequel.
Find all of the Reporter’s story on the matter here.

Sure why not. Did anyone write the first one? I thought they just came up with set pieces and pointed the camera a RDJ? And then tossed tons of money to Stan Winston's Company. Maybe they should worry about who's going to score the next one, I didn't dig the whole No Country no music feel of the first one...oh wait there was music? Well maybe it'll be more memorable next time, fucking wasted use of the easiest theme song choice ever.

we haven't seen "TROPIC THUNDER" yet, and the most important thing about the Iron Man stories is its fun and accessibility to audiences. Oh, and just because you wrote what promises to be a successful comedy doesn't mean you can't write a good action film.

I like him as an actor. I thought he was the best thing about Mulholland Drive........well other than Laura Elena Harring's tits. I've never seen anything he's written though. Oh and Hellboy 2 did rock. Easily the most entertaining film of the year. Absolutely amazing.

Mentioning the first guy who gets a whack at the script is jumping the gun ever so slightly. Remember Andrew Kevin Walker's discarded X-Men script. And Michael Chabon wrote a treatment for X-Men and wrote a draft of Spiderman 2. If this thing is going to be ready for filming, at least half a dozen screenwriters will be crawling all over it.

China is so much a part of the Zeitgeist at the moment. The only problem with a Chinese bad guy is if he's a lame stereotype. I imagine they might downplay the whole aliens/supernatural angle to him though and might not directly call him The Mandarin. He'd probably be more like a Chinese Norman Osborn, a business rival to Stark that has some dark secrets and darker schemes.

I was trying to say Charlies Angles
and American Pyscho..Funny thing I remember back in 03 when I reached the American Psycho for the 3rd time. I said to myself, you know Christian Bale could be a very good Batman/Bruce Wayne or Harvey Dent...I might able to see Justin T. as the Joker and possibly Josh Lucas as Harvey Dent - Just based on the various movies or in Justin T's mostly TV work I have seen.

I'm not a middle age single woman with 30 cats so why do they think any one on this site would be REMOTELY interested in cat food. They completely missed the mark on where that commercial should be aired. Perhaps the iVillage site but not aintitcoolnews. Come on.

I didn't know he was a writer! He's great in everything I've seen him in. Six Feet Under, Mulholland Drive, and he was even great as John Hancock in the John Adams miniseries: "I am a businessman strangled by monopoly! Shame on you sir!"

Yeah, I dunno whether it appears wrong to you but it comes up shit when I look at it. I have a version saved in my archive anyway, which works. If you want to give me your email in a way that won't have you spammed senseless I'll send it on.

Owner of the worst Irish accent EVER to grace the movies in CHARLIE'S ANGEL 2: DEMI'S HOT? Wasn't he the dude who completely trashed a hotel room suite in the music video for Muse's "Hysteria"? He's one intense guy, and I'd love to see him do a seriously dramatic role. Fuck it, fire Bale and make him the new Bruce Wayne.<P>
But as a screenwriter? Fuck it, why not? He can't be any worse than some of the shitheels out there. I mean, fuck, Akiva Goldfinger is still employed!?!?!

The lame tone of the first one was depressing enough, now they hire Theroux fresh from Tropic Thunder? <p>
I dig him as an actor, but that news does nothing to allay my fears the sequel will be another shitfest of lazy cynicism and poor slapstick trying to hide the shallow character development and lack of meaningful plot. I'm eager to give him a chance because it's Justin Fuckin' Theroux, but the same indulgence applied to Favreau spawned a real moronic movie masquerading as a quality project, so... Been fooled before.

But Theroux is a nice guy (met him once at a screening for Inland Empire in NYC) and he is a very talented writer. I think he'll probably write an inventive script for Iron Man 2. But as good as the script might be...That won't make Favreu a better director.

I agree with you. Iron Man was a major disappointment. It should have been darker in my opinion. Honestly I think I would have rather seen Danny DeVito or Brian DePalma direct it rather than JV. The effects were terrible and the story and tone was too campy to be taken seriously. As a huge fan of the comic book it was a MAJOR letdown.

but yeah, I was left completely in awe as the end credits rolled... How such a silly, uninspired movie could be the flavor of the month and "a step in the right direction" as so many observers said when it comes to comics-to-film adaptations?? The plot was paperthin, the acting hammy as hell (with comedians "ad-libbing" all at the same time to hide the poor level of the dialogue, making the whole thing a true ear-raping "performance" a la Lethal Weapon 3) and the action scenes totally uninspired (the evasion) if not derivative (the final fight is RoboCop 2 without the badassness) or even insulting to the intelligence (the "no-fly zone" bullshit - as if a military contractor doubled with a fucking state of the art AI couldn't avoid the pseudo-dogfight...) but oh-so convenient to muscle up the trailers and lure in people with bogus set pieces. <p>
What really upsets me is the bullshit posture of the promoters, who spent months and doughs trying to butter up the fans with their so-called "ambitions" (citing Verhoeven, Clancy and Cameron as major influences) when the end product is just another dickless, sub-par flick whose only redeeming value to the audience is Downey channeling Jack Sparrow. How lazy is that? I could spend a few more words stating how they got Stark completely off the mark (from the driven, big-mouthed idealist saying what others hardly dare to think to a cheap cynical prick people love to hate without even questionning his choices) with their I-can't-believe-they-wrote-THAT "change of heart" plot device - a worthy rival to the whole "bad guy's harmed by ICE" when it comes to the most childishly stupid writing in this film - but I digress. I truly hated the posturing of the filmmakers as well as the end product. I cannot believe so many people (among them some fellow talkbackers - a bunch of whom I thought were able do detect shit when they were served some) praise this trash as being "clever" or even "faithful". Puzzling.

Once again I agree with your post. I mentioned Depalma and DeVito because in my opinion DD proved with Hoffa that he could tell a good story without it primarily being a dark comedy. And his films like Roses and Smoochy show that he could have handled Stark's twisted sense of humor. DePalma in my opinion is a virtuoso with the camera and when it comes to suspense. I think he needs a big studio film right now and this might be the project to bring him back. He made a comeback with Untouchables and yet another with Mission Impossible. I think he is more than capable of taking on a comic book franchise. My first choice for most Hollywood fare is almost always Paul Verhoeven who blew me away yet again with Black Book. I think he should have been directing Iron Man and G.I. Joe.

I sincerely hope those of you who are trashing Iron Man are just joking. Iron Man was one of the best Comic Book movies ever released. Granted, I've ready very little of the comic book, but I read enough to know the origin of Iron Man well enough. I though Favreau did a fantastic job directing Iron Man, and I'm glad to see he's back. SpencerTrilby and fassbinder, you're both high as kites.

and to fassbinder79: I still think your choices are a bit too odd for my taste, albeit I agree that DePalma did a good mainstream job with Mission: Impossible. I'm not sure he'd be interested in high tech gear, though. <p>
Good call on Verhoeven, I'd add James Cameron to the wish list but, I mean, who wouldn't?

Yeah I'd love to see the first guy back on but Marvel Studios I think has proven it knows has to handle its properties, at least with the first two movies. Iron Man was brillant, Incredible Hulk did have some flaws but it was a hell of a lot better than that 2003 dreck Ang Lee released. Time will tell if that trend continues but I don't think this is anything to be to worried over.

I think they should somehow incorporate those two movies (thematically) with the Iron Man sequel... Tony battles inner demons while trying to catch a psychotic evil doer, all the while hallucinating on shrooms.

The "posturing of the filmmakers" you speak of comes off as pseudo film school snarkery. From what I observed, the filmmakers (Favreau, Libatique, Downey, Winston et al) were all out to make a fun movie. I had fun watching it. You confuse the filmmakers with the industry marketing machine that makes sure these movies are screened.

I think Theroux will probably write a halfway decent script for Iron Man 2. But Favreau sucks as a director and I had about as much fun watching Iron Man as I did as a kid seeing Mac And Me. Not very much. It was a film study in how to impressively use product placement. Nothing more...Nothing less. Dark Knight will be what comic book films SHOULD be about.

It was fair enough to say you didn't like Iron Man, even better for you to cite the reasons why and best of all for you to nail one of the best Jeff Bridges references in the history of his career in defense of your opinion.
However, you still clearly suffer from the malaise of many talkbackers which is basically your inability to tolerate dissent. Should we, the people who enjoyed Iron Man, get down on our knees and apologize to you, o encyclopedia of everything that is Tony Stark, because we had a good time? Should we flagellate ourselves because thanks to our patronage, you looked like an complete asshole for predicting this movie would tank?
Your resentment of this movie clearly comes from a deep respect/love (choose your word or come up with your own if there's a better term for it) of the character and being a comic-book fan I get that, but why don't you just stop at giving people your opinion which they have the option to take or leave, instead of telling us we're idiots for not agreeing with it?
Just a thought.

Sorry if you misread my comments as a kneejerk reaction to those who liked it. It was never my intent, but maybe the unfathomable hypocrisy of some fanboys I had to deal with on here when the film was relesaed took its toll on me. Anyway, I'm not the kind to diss others' tastes. I just thought it was a trashy movie, to each his own.

Downey was off for one reason: he played it clownish and cynical. And Stark is many things, but not a cynical clown. More like a driven guy who doesn't take shit from anyone (and certainly not a mechanical arm) - but to portray this, they should've dropped the kiddie tone and build a real spy story, some kind of ballsy and mature political thriller just like the best comics do. They chose to give up in favor of a cardboard characterization (the "change of heart" thing) of a jackass who mellows at the end to please the audience. <p>
In this day and age, it would be much more ballsy (and that comes from a liberal) as well as faithful to the source to show Stark as in the comics: the ptriotic guy ready to take shit from the holier-than-thou because he believes that his weapons can make a change. Instead, he choose to drop the business altogether because being anti-war (no matter *which war* it is) is much more popular. I expected some balls from the filmmakers, like a non-cynical Lord Of War or RoboCop but they chose to take the easy path of the "hero you'll love to hate" whose actions are not to be questioned at the end of the day. <p>
Besides, between his bogus MySpace page and his constant buttering up of the fans, citing RoboCop or Tom Clancy, Favreau ended up as a blowhard hack to my eyes since his end product bears no similarities to the holy examples he kept bragging about. No one can seriously compare Verhoeven's visionary tale to Favreau's childish action-comedy. <p>
If you liked it, more power to you. I respect that and like my previous post said I'm not questionning others' tastes. Personal, ad hominem attacks never bring anything new to the table.